This invention relates to systems which sense spatial relationships and to the individual sensors used in the systems. The system is capable of producing a decision based on the values of one or more sensors. The system finds application in a variety of gesture recognition applications, exemplified by communication devices for nonvocal deaf or deaf-blind individuals. The system also finds application providing information on complex animate and inanimate motion which can be stored and/or processed immediately to construct a true or transformed model of the original motion. The model may be used to analyze the original motion or used as a control input to a second application.
There are various methods of sensing spatial relationships of interrelated parts, such as human and robotic joints and other moveable parts. In particular, there is a strong interest in improving on and developing new goniometric, i.e., angle measuring, devices. Commonly used goniometers, such as optical encoders, resolvers, potentiometers, Hall-effect sensors, and the like, are based on optical, electrical, mechanical and electromechanical technologies, etc. Most available goniometers are housed in bulky mechanical structures which can be difficult to mount and often interfere with the motion they are intended to track. The devices can be expensive, have limited resolution and can be difficult to use in a case where the bend axis is not rigidly defined and varies during flexure (e.g., a finger joint).
There is therefore a need for a low-profile, high resolution goniometer which is easily and unobtrusively mounted to a surface to monitor angles between two or more moveable structures associated with that surface (e.g., to monitor the bending of a joint or hinge, or the interrelation between the angles of a number of joints or hinges). The output of such a goniometer may be used to control the movement of computer generated objects or figures on a computer monitor, as well as to control the operation of physical machinery, and the like.